Up in the air

Frontier Airlines may build a maintenance hangar in northern Colorado. Then again, they may not.

Frontier’s decision on where to locate is still up in the air, so to speak, and airport officials across Colorado — including those in Greeley — are questioning whether the deal would be good for the region.

In April, Frontier requested proposals from several Colorado airports, looking for a large hangar where workers could maintain Frontier’s fleet of 57 Airbus airplanes. As part of the deal, the company is asking the local airport to build a $15 million hangar, which Frontier would then lease. The Greeley/Weld Airport, among others, is under consideration for this project.

Officials throughout northern Colorado worry because the airline industry is economically volatile. Some say the winning city could build a hangar and its residents could be stuck paying of the bonds used to build it if Frontier were to go out of business. The city would then be left with an extremely large hangar to fill.

Dennis Heap, manager of the Front Range Airport in Watkins, said area airports need an exit strategy for building and financing such a massive structure.

As airports in the region wait for word, officials think about their long-term interests and wonder what sort of turbulence this potential flight may encounter.